As the football team gets increasingly left for dead, more and more Terp fans are turning to basketball to soothe their wounded pride. And after Maryland Madness last weekend, the hoops season is officially underway. The men’s team isn’t getting a ton ofrespect in the preseason polls, but that’s OK. We’re a better team when we’re undervalued. The women’s team is full of freshmen but are expected to be relatively solid.

Based on the limited knowledge you get from Maryland Madness, both teams looked fine. I watched the coverage on TV, and here are some photographic highlights.

Freshman crop of women’s talent was introduced.

Senior Emery Wallace, who is out for the season with injury, did a lengthy sideline interview anyway. For some reason. Good evening, Emery.

Sorry, Jerome. Nice of the team to give him a spot on the strength and conditioning staff. He’s a kinesiology major, so this would be a nice feather in his professional cap.

And now……the head coach of YOUR Maryland Terrapins….oh oh oh OH oh…

He got all teary during his speech…he really seems to expect big things this year.

Surprise! Vasquez took the mike. “You’ve all gotta support us no matter what, OK” he said. No, Vasquez. I will agree to no such thing.

It seemed from watching the highlights on TV that Gary was making a plea that the fans not desert the team this year. Imagine that?! The coach and the star player pleading with the fans not to give up. Mmm.

If they want the crowd fully behind them come January and February, they should take care of business against the Morgan States of the world in December. That said, the Terp crowd has been pretty mild since the move to Comcast Center. It’s like the students nowadays only care about Duke and Carolina — i.e., any game where they can riot afterward.

That’s not a good thing. The DC metro area is full of fair weather fans. Terps fans are not fair weather fans by any stretch of the imagination, but they have been spoiled by success in recent years, much like Redskins fans were spoiled by success in the 80’s and 90’s. Let’s do everything we can to prevent Terps fans from trending in that direction regardless of whether or not we have a few down years in basketball and football. Each program and each season goes through peaks and valleys. This is college sports, not pro sports, and I believe there is a distinction there, namely that the players don’t get paid. We should support them through the good times and the bad times.

It’s easy to speechify about The Kids and about You’ve Gotta Support The Kids and Real Fans Don’t Boo and this and that, but I’m gonna take a different view. First, they ARE getting paid. They are getting a free ride through school. That is not nothing. Far from it. Should they receive a wage? Maybe. But you can’t say they’re playing for no compensation.

Second, these players know what they’re getting into when they sign up. They sure don’t mind taking the glory that comes with success in college sports, so why should they be immune to criticism? These are young men, but they’re still men. It’s not like they’re in fourth grade. Obviously I’m not saying college athletes should be constantly vilified, and I do think some fans, especially in the Internet age here, are quick to overreact (both to success and adversity). But the players shouldn’t be excused from scrutiny, or at least hard questions. That’s life. And this is the path they chose.

Also, I don’t really buy into this “fair weather fan” thing. Every team, every city goes through this. When the team is failing, fewer people are going to support you. When the team is succeeding, more people support you. That’s the way EVERYTHING works. When I suck it up at work, the people who pay my salary (as the fans do for sports teams) react in some way. The approval rating, if you will, goes down. Terphed, let’s say you started sniffing glue again. That’s a fail. I would vocally let you know that I thought you needed to put the glue down. Fandom is not dissimilar. Fans do, can, and should do the same thing when their team is dysfunctional. The ticket-buying public has every right to express their opinion in whatever (legal) way they see fit. I don’t see how it makes you a better fan if you just blindly and unquestioningly support your team no matter what kind of mud they drag you and themselves through. That’s just jingoism.

So that’s my take. That said, the Comcast Center crowd could be a lot better. They just don’t always seem into it. They should bring it for each and every game…then it will be like Cole. But the team has to play a part as well.

– A scholarship is nothing like getting paid. $30K/yr in room and board is nothing like pro sports wages, where the players share up to 60% of the revenue. If the basketball team brings in $10M in revenue and they split $6M among the 12 players ($500K/ea) then you can say they’re getting paid. There is no comparison there. With the amount of time these kids put into playing they’re making way less than minimum wage. They’re doing it for the love. We ought to show them some grace in return.

– I never said they are “immune to criticism”. I criticize them as much as the next guy. However, I don’t jeer my own team’s college athletes at the game no matter how poorly they are playing. I don’t blame people for not going to the games if the team sucks or leaving early if the performance is poor, but it is the mark of being a poor fan base to boo your own team at home.

– We’ll have to agree to disagree on fair weather fans. Growing up in NJ, I have suffered through lean years as a Mets fan (including this one) and I have known many lifelong Jets fans (self explanitory) that don’t give up on their team when the chips are down. There is such a thing as fair weather fans, and DC area fans tend to fall into that category. It may be tough for you to see this because you’ve lived here too long.

The fans don’t need to root for the team with, as Alan Greenspan would say, irrantional exuberence, but they shouldn’t boo the Terps at home, and they should support the team when the chips are down. That’s all I’m saying.

I’m still not buying it, sir. Just because it’s nothing like the Monopoly money of pro sports wages doesn’t mean these guys are paupers. Even if they don’t make it to the pros, playing on a big-time college team like Maryland hoops gives you a really good chance to land a really good job somewhere. It’s not like they’re shoveling horse shit for minimum wage.

I’ve only lived here three years long than you have. Are you serious about Mets fans not giving up on their team? How many Met games did you go to this year? NY fans LOVE to stream for the exits at halftime just to give an F-you to the team. They LOVE to boo bad players. A-Rod? Jose Reyes? Chad Pennington? They were ROOTING for Chad Pennington to get injured! When a team does good, people cheer. When a team does bad, people boo. That’s not specific to any region. It might be especially noticeable in DC area b/c frustation levels are high, and justifiably so. DC fans are not quite as rabid as fan bases in Philly or Boston, but every city has these trends. Go up and get 76ers tix right now, you can walk right in. I bet those former big-time die hard 76ers fans in the Iverson jerseys will let you boo the mascot right along with them.